Windsor at Oak Grove Apartments — Local services in Melrose

I'll preface this by saying I had previously written a review of similar rating and intonation, but later opted to take it down because I felt I had been to harsh. However recent events have led me to reverse my opinion on this, and as a result I have rewritten my review with a few additional details.

The Windsor at Oak grove is by all accounts a very nice place to live. I would call it cushy and well maintained. The amenities are good, maintenance is lightening fast and high quality. The courtyards are nice and the gas grills and the gym are wonderful amenities that I personally got a lot of use out of. I did not use the pool but it seems nice and well maintained. Management is very good as well, they are super fast to reply to emails and very easy to access in general. No complaints there. Windsor is very good, what Windsor isn't however is affordable. When we first moved in I felt the prices were a bit on the high end, but that we would surely get a lot for our money. I expected a price increase on the renewal, I knew they would want to raise the rent, but I had also expected a certain level of basic human decency that was unfortunately not extended to us.

My Fiancee and I's primary issue with the complex arrived when our first renewal came. Our unit was leased for $2685 for 15 months, we paid $50 for our cat and $180 for two parking spaces in the garage. Our new renewal offer was $2950 for rent and no changes in any other fees (an 11% increase). This would have brought our total cost to $3200 a month for a 1 Bedroom unit with a den. This offer was given on September 25th 2022.

We immediately spoke with the leasing office about this and indicated that this price was more than we could pay. We were told that there was nothing that could be done, the price was non-negotiable, and that the best they could do was $50 off parking. We were told that prices were based off the market and that they essentially had their hands tied.

Because of this, we decided to move out of Windsor, to a very close by 2 year old complex where we are singed on to pay $2700 a month all in (parking and pet rent included) for a 1 bedroom of similar floor space to our one bed den unit. Windsor had assured us that we wouldn't find a better deal nearby. This unit is a $500 discount from the $3200 a month Windsor was asking.

The reason I opted to re-write this review is because I have now seen that the same floor plan, 1 Bedroom Den, unit is currently available on Windsor's website (time of writing 11/14/2022) for the original $2685 that we had been paying prior to the renewal. This is nothing short of a slap in the face. We had to leave, rapidly pack up and find a new place all while juggling school, work, and wedding planning. To know that we were forced out of our housing and told there was "nothing they could do" only to see Windsor entirely revert back to our current pricing less than 2 months later is nothing short of disgusting predatory behavior specifically designed to squeeze every drop of money out of their tenants. Let me be clear, this is price gouging, my Fiancée and I were forced out of what we thought could be our home for a few years because of this. I expected better.

In addition, after seeing 5 similar apartment complexes in the area, I have also determined that there are deficiencies in the units at Windsor. Keyless entry, Butteryfly MX, RFID garage doors, and smart thermostats are standard equipment in other complexes charging less or similar money. For the same money, right across the tracks at the Washington's all of these conveniences can be had, with better proximity to the train.

To finalize, I think Windsor is a fine place to live if you can get it at a good price. Unfortunately you are at the mercy of the housing market, seems like we are led to believe that the prices of houses in the area somehow corelate with the price of rentals.

If you wish to live here, you will enjoy it, but be prepared for the reality of large non-negotiable rent increases as soon as your...

I have been living here for less than a year and so far we have had a less than pleasant experience. Upon moving in we signed our lease and contract stating that we would have gated access with our covered parking, that quiet hours would start at 8pm, and that our handicapped apartment would only be missing a few cabinets. I have a chronic illness that also prevents me from being around any and all artificial scents and one of the male sales people in the leasing office told us that they would add this into our building file to make sure that no one with any smoke on their clothes or scents would come into our apartment.

The next issue that came up is our washer broke, it didn't just break down there was actually a problem with the door closing which caused all of the water to pour out of the washer. They sent in a maintenance team to look at the washer and while they discussed looking up the issue on YouTube I was extremely sick because of their cologne and cigarette smoke smell. I contacted them 3 times before they would replace our washer. I also brought up the issue of the maintenance team wearing scents when the male employee stated upon signing our lease that they would add this into our file so that no one would enter unless they were free from scents. When I brought up the promise that this sales employee made I was told that no such thing existed, that they don't have a building file. The next issue came with the security gate that protects our building and our covered parking. When I told the office about this they had ME put in the request. It is a building and safety issue and while I was standing there instead of the woman putting the request in herself, which they have the ability to do she had me do it. I had to put in the request at least 3 times before they replaced a broken piece of the gate.

The latest issue that we have been experiencing is extremely noisy upstairs neighbors. We moved into this unit and it didn't seem as though anyone was living above us until a month or so ago. Ever since the new neighbors upstairs moved in I have lost sleep and haven't had any response from the office employees. Because of my health, I need my sleep otherwise I will feel ill, miss work, and will wind up in the hospital. The neighbors disregard the 8pm quiet hours and break the guidelines of our lease by allowing their child to stop, jump, run, throw himself on the floor and throw tantrums until 11pm sometimes midnight. You can hear his parents screaming at him, and during the day it sounds as if they are dropping bowling balls. I can understand that he is a young child but throwing yourself on the floor, pounding on the floor, and acting disruptive isn't acceptable in an apartment community. It isn't acceptable that they allow this behavior to continue when each tenant has signed the same lease stating that they agree to the 8pm quiet hours.

The Massachusetts general laws, Chapter 186, Section 14 impose potential penalties on any lessor or landlord who directly or indirectly interferes with the quiet enjoyment of any residential premises by the occupant. I would say that having our neighbors child pound on the floor and throw himself around their apartment while they laugh, or in most cases scream at him well past 8pm is a clear violation of not only the lease that they signed but also this state law.

The only good thing about this property is the pool which if you visit during the weekday before 4pm is perfect and on weekends before 11am. There are a few parks close by and a great sushi restaurant in the complex. Even though there are perks that we appreciate we are disgusted by the male sales employees constant lying just to make a sale, and their refusal to handle the issues that we have been having in a...

We've lived in this community for over a year now. This is a very nice community with nice neighbors and great facility. We really enjoyed it for the first few months.

Things took a sharp turn this past April. Since then, this community has not been the nice and quiet community it used to be.

Because this is a community that is (maybe) 10 years old, there are renovations going on constantly here and there. I totally get that. It is a business and it needs to improve to get customers. BUT, do you honestly need to start doing all these things at 7:30 in the morning??

In April, there were people doing renovation to the exterior wall just outside our window. They would frequently start at 7:30. The noise level was definitely loud enough to wake anyone up. We thought it was just a one-week thing. Boy were we naive... They were still doing that towards the end of May. What was ironic was that "quiet hours from 10pm to 8am" is actually part of your lease! It looks like this only applies to residents, but not the business!. Towards the end of April, we decided that we had had enough and talked to people in the leasing office. The first person we talked to said he would discuss this with his manager and get back to us. Never heard back from him! Talked to another person a week later who told us that the renovation team is a contractor. The contractor said that they need to "warm" the machine at 7:30 so that they can work at 8. Okay? Is that any of my business?? Noise at 7:30 is noise at 7:30. I don't care what's the logic behind it. I am paying 2200 a month to live in this "luxurious" community and I can't even decide when I want to wake up??? Come on!

Because we have had such a wonderful experience with the community in the past, we decided that we would just wait it out. It's exterior wall---they can't renovate it every year. Again, we are naive. In the past summer, it seems that the community is doing a full renovation to some of the older units so that they can now charge over 2500 for 1B1B. Again, I get that. It's a business. BUT, do you need to do that at 7am??? This has been going on in the unit right next to us for the past week. They are banging the wall (using hammers?), moving stuff, talking loudly, playing music every day (including weekends) from 8:00am! This morning, my wife and I was waken by the noise and it was not even 7am!!

In short: if this is happening to me (a current resident), it will happen to you. Ask yourself this before you consider moving in: do you want to pay 2500 a month fro 1B1B and in the meantime have no control over when you are...